The Norton siblings: Growing up basketball

As children, brothers and sisters can spend hours in their driveway under the basketball hoop simulating last-second buzzer beaters and practicing their shooting technique. What most children don't have is a full-size court. 

Then again, junior Tom and freshman Allie Norton aren't most brothers and sisters.  They both start for Truman State's respective basketball teams. Basketball was a crucial part of their upbringing and it continues to be an influential force in their lives.

Their father, Randy Norton, played basketball for the University of Iowa and currently is the assistant womens basketball coach at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He was the one who cemented the court in the family backyard and started the Nortons on their path to basketball success.

"I don't remember this, but stories are told that he had us doing [shooting drills] at the age of 18 months," Tom said. "We've been shooting the ball for a long time."

Assistant mens coach Matt Fitzpatrick, who played under Randy Norton in high school, said the Nortons are a basketball family through and through.

"Basketball's everything to them," Fitzpatrick said. "When I was in high school, [Tom] was our ballboy. At halftime he'd be out [on the court] and could barely pick up the ball, but he was shooting threes and he was only 7 or 8 years old. It was unbelievable."

Sports history is replete with stories of parents who pulled their protesting children kicking and screaming into the world of competitive sports. Tom said the Nortons' experience couldn't have been more different.

"Basketball was never forced on us," he said. "It was always we who asked [dad] for help. I just think in today's world, parents force sports upon their kids when they might not really want to do it, and I just like that I had the freedom where if I didn't want to [play basketball], it wasn't frowned upon."

Instead, Allie said, both of the Nortons still use the skills their father taught them on that backyard court, and their family has been nothing but supportive.

"[Our family comes to games] 

all the time," she said. "Sometimes my sister [sophomore Carly Norton at St. Ambrose University] will have a game, or my little brother or my dad will have a game, and my mom has to choose between four games to go to, but she makes it as much as she can."

Womens head coach Michael Smith said there is no trace of a sibling rivalry between Tom and Allie.

"It's not a jealousy thing between those two at all," Smith said. "It's not how they've been raised. They're very supportive of one another. So they're going to do everything they can to help each other out and be better ballplayers."

Fitzpatrick agreed and said he thought a large reason why Allie — who had Div. I offers coming out of high school — ended up at Truman State was because of her desire to remain close to her family in Columbia, Mo., and the fact that Tom already was a Bulldog.

Mens head coach Matt Woodley, who also played under Randy and is the son of a coach himself, said basketball can help tie families involved in it together. He said he thinks the Nortons have benefitted positively from their close proximity to the game.

"When you grow up around [basketball], that's what you do," Woodley said. "It's what you talk about at the dinner table, you go to the games as a kid. ... You can just tell [the Norton family] share[s] a bond about basketball, and you can tell they care a lot about each other."

For the Norton siblings, they said the greatest pleasure they have experienced playing together at Truman is being able to see each other play with a frequency they haven't in years. While Tom went to school in Kirksville and the family lived in Bloomington, Ill., because Randy Norton was the assistant womens basketball coach at Illinois State University, viewing opportunities rarely presented themselves. 

"I've seen [Tom] play more this year than I did his freshman and sophomore year," Allie said. "He's been through everything so he knows how hard it can be."

Tom said his father has continued to be an influence on him, as he hopes to coach basketball one day at the collegiate level. 

"He's an influence just because I've gotten to see him do it and see how much he loves it and how much I love it," Tom said. "He always says he's never worked a day in his life, and that's how I feel about it. That's something I'd like to do for the rest of my life."